November 13, 2010. Robyn and I biked with our friend Marita across Seattle to get our Undriver Licenses™ at a Liveable Streets event held at the University of Washington, with lots of groups tabling there, low-cost helmets, and more. We made a beeline for the Undriver Licensing™ station.

We were greeted by Undriving™ founder Julia Field and her team of volunteers. Since we’ll be taping a conversation with Julia, I wanted Robyn to videotape me and others getting our Undriver Licenses™ for that show.

Chelsea took the lead, explaining Undriving’s goal — to reduce car use, mine or others. I filled out a short pledge form for action’s I’d take in the next month. She urged me to do something that was doable but a stretch. Since I’ve already been doing many errands by bike instead of car, I had to dig a bit deeper.

I pledged to get all our groceries by bike over the next month. Chelsea brought me to the next station to prepare for getting my photo taken. Paula said that, if I wanted, I could choose props to wear in my photo. They had a red boa, a crown, a soft red velvet hat, a toy bicycle and more.

Okay, I gotta admit, the ham in me took over. I perched the crown on top of my bike helmet, wrapped the red boa around my neck, and held up the toy bike, grinning proudly at becoming an Undriver™. Sander snapped the picture, tweaked a bit on the computer and printed the license. Noting that it was issued from “Planet Earth” no less, I checked off which “Undorsements” I could sign up to (like walking or taking fewer car trips) and signed it. Sandra laminated my card, presenting it along with some free Metro (bus) passes, which we’ll use while here in Seattle.

Being an Undriver™ — what a brilliant idea for having fun while raising awareness and doing something that matters for the planet.

For a $20 donation you can send in your photo and get your Undriver License™. Now, isn’t that a cool idea for you and as a gift for others? Then you too can whip it out when they ask for your ID and start a conversation about driving less. Learn more at Undriving.org.

Watch “Undriving™ - Changing the Way We Think” (episode 205).

September 10, 2010. In Port Townsend’s uptown district with lovely old Victorian houses and retail stores, we found a fabric sign for “The ReCyclery” hanging on a fence beside a gate. Inside was a spacious backyard lawn, with a lineup of used bicycles and a small shed. Chauncey and Dash Tudhope-Locklear warmly welcomed us in. Robyn quickly found the perfect backgrounds for our videotaping, and we pulled a bench over near the bike repair stand and started our chat.

These two young guys run an enterprise that is partly a business and partly an educational non-profit. They’ve turned the standard business model upside down: it’s not about bigger and more expensive gear, and making more money, they told me. They want bikes to be affordable and accessible to everybody. Many of the bikes they sell are used. Sure they repair bikes, but their eyes light up when they talk about teaching people.

That’s the non-profit part. Their mission is “Positive Social Change through Bicycles.” These guys are empowering others while contributing to a more sustainable, lower-energy world. Using bicycles.

They offer a weekly free bike clinic at their shop, where people can borrow the tools and learn how to maintain their bikes, or build one from parts. They run a bike class in the local elementary school for kids.

They’ve done bike clinics in neighborhoods. They did a farm tour, biking to various local farms and fixing the farmers’ bikes for free. They described hauling 200 pounds of tools in a trailer behind their bikes — and up and down the hillsides of Port Townsend. That’s hard work but they’re sure walking their talk (or should we say they’re biking their talk?).

“I want people to become ‘intimate’” with their bikes,” Chauncey says. “If people learn how to care for their bikes — like learn how to fix a tire — they’re more engaged to use them.”.

I was so touched by these guys! Their hearts are as big as all the world! Dash’s eyes light up as talks about loving to work with the kids. Chauncey talks about doing this for love.

They’ve set a goal of having half of Port Townsend using alternative transportation by 2050 (bus, carshare, bicycle, walking). I think they’re off to a great start.

P.S. And they got us off to a good start, too! Knowing that we’d be staying in Seattle for a few months, Robyn had been wondering where to locate used bikes for us to get around, just as she’d done for the 15 years she lived in Seattle.

We found our first bike right there at the ReCyclery. A used silver and black bike with a frame large enough for us long-legged critters. It felt like the perfect completion to a heartful conversation. What goes around comes around. (ptrecyclery.com)

Watch their show “Changing the World One Bike Rider at a Time” (episode 182).

October 4, 2010. We’re taking a two month hiatus in Seattle while Robyn undergoes treatment for her long-term lyme with a naturopathic physician in Seattle. This naturopathic doctor herself has lyme and specializes in this type of disease. As you can imagine, after twenty years of lyme, the prospect of Robyn’s regaining lost energy, cognitive function, and quality of life is a thrilling one.

The universe has given a lot of support for this choice. We will live in our “Little House” mobile studio in the yard beside our friend Marita’s house in northwest Seattle. Robyn knows Seattle well from her 15 years here at the UW and has gotten us bikes for local travel and exercise (photo by Robyn and Janaia with their one Brompton folding bike). We hope to take in a few “big city” cultural events while in the area.

We’re excited! This past six weeks has been a real adventure. And the mobile studio has worked out wonderfully. Living in this mobile “Little House” certainly is an experience in simpler living - there isn’t room to acquire much stuff! We’ve loved traveling and meeting wonderful people, and have taped some very rich programs. We don’t want to stop!

So we’re shifting our perspective: continuing to travel and tape programs is the New Life. Meanwhile, we’re reflecting on how to lessen our workload maintaining the role the homestead at Lone Bobcat Woods plays in our lives. (Lease the house to someone who loves wild lands and has the skills for a solar-powered place?)

We’ve already lined up several programs to tape in the area. Robyn has produced three of the programs we taped on this tour. The show goes on.

The bumper sticker shows a cargo bike and reads “One Less Truck.” Given the cargo bikes we rode at Joel and Barb Grover’s Splendid Cycles in Portland, it also could read “One Less Car.” Or “One more parent getting fit while carting the kids around.”

We had a long enjoyable day taping almost a mini-documentary at the Grover’s recently-opened store.

Concerned a few years ago about peak oil and other societal challenges, and having over twenty years in the bicycle industry, Joel and Barb took the plunge to meet a big need: offer human-powered transport that also hauls stuff. In a bike-friendly city like Portland, such a vehicle can meet nearly all of one’s local transport needs for far less cost than a motorized vehicle.

They regaled us with their story of transporting a six-foot-high palm plant on a cargo bike — too tall for their automobile,  and surely a head-turner for passers-by!

We taped a tour of their custom-outfitted cargo bikes included “gateway” bikes with additional capacity on front or back for child seats or boxes (Joel, left); a bike elongated between front wheel and rider for storage (Barb, center); and a stable tricycle with huge storage box with a seat for a small passenger between the front wheels (Robyn, right).

Off camera is the electric-assist bike, whose lithium ion batteries give it a range of about 60 miles with a recharge cost of about 5 cents. I was glad to learn that all their bikes can be outfitted with electric-assist, a boon for more challenging locales and people who might otherwise not ride.

We also taped a segment with local frame producers Joseph Ahearne and Nick Sande about Ahearne’s “cycle truck” (Joel, photo left).

Naturally we just had to test ride these bikes! I found them lighter and much easier to learn than it might appear. Not surprisingly, this adventure has re-ignited Robyn’s love of bike riding from decades past. Now she’s floating the notion of getting a couple of foldable bikes for on the road: they’d expand our (local) horizons and give us welcome exercise.

Thanks Barb and Joel, for lighting this flame, giving us a grand tour, and the most fun we’ve had in a long while.